Review # 188: "New X-Men by Grant Morrison Ultimate Collection Vol. 1"

After the X-Men died a slow death through "The Twelve" and "Ages of Apocalypse," it wandered like an undead zombie shambling through stories involving the High Evolutionary and the intergalactic community. Alan Davis was trying, bless him, but the series was in such dire need of rehab it seemed like there was nothing Marvel could do to fix things.

Giant Size Review # 5: X-Men by Bendis

Brian Michael Bendis' X-Men run is starting to show promise on the other side of "Battle of the Atom." Moving the All-New X-Men to the Cyclops camp allows the time-displaced original team to confront some of its issues without ongoing distractions, while Scott's newly-discovered charges are beginning to come into their own as characters. But there are still some bumps in the road, including one of the most befuddling crossovers in recent memory.

Review # 163: "Avengers Assemble by Kurt Busiek Vol. 4"

Kurt Busiek's Avengers team has tackled a strong share of world crises. Some external, some internal, some mystical, some technological.

Now... it's time to get cosmic.

Review # 147: "War of Kings"

"War of Kings" is a bit reminiscent of "Operation Galactic Storm" in that it's about a war between Marvel cosmic superpower races the Kree and the Shi'ar. However, there's a noted difference. While the classic Avengers tale was about manipulation and conquest, this piece written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning is more about ego. Ultimately, it's a clash between Inhuman King Black Bolt and Shi'ar Emperor Vulcan who who both appear willing to doom their species in the name of what they think is right. Neither man is.

Review # 4: "Operation: Galactic Storm"

The early-to-mid 90s were a weird time for The Avengers. Thor was replaced with a human imbued with his power; Iron Man was possessed by a villain, died, and was replaced with a teenage version of himself; Wasp became half-woman, half-insect; then, in 1996, they were all "killed off" and handed over to the folks at Image Comics (Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld et al. who quit in order to theoretically make more money by having full control of their own characters) to rebuild their, well... image. The truth was the series just wasn't on the same level as the X-Men sales-wise and Marvel was pulling out all the stops to try to get people to buy in.